about obama's portrait, he has very big hands. >> i am jim sciutto in for erin burnett. ac 360 starts right now. >> good evening, we begin tonight keeping them honest with a simple question, what is worse than a cover up. the answer came today from the white house briefing room. now in case you haven't seen the movie or read about this type of psychological manipulation. its main weapons include lying, contradiction and denial. the white house hasn't been able to put together a consistent explanation about who knew about the allegations.

cnn reportedd don mcgahn knew about this a year ago. last year the world saw this picture. porter's wife with a black eye. the white house would have you believe that above all else the president who supports victims. the same president who spoke about porter glowingly without saying one word about -- >> take domestic violence seriously. the president supports the victims of domestic violence and believes even should be treated fairly and with do you process >> now just as a refresher, here is what the president has said about this case and its alleged

victims. this was on friday. >> obviously tough time for him. he did a very good job when he was in the white house. and we hope he has a wonderful career and hopefully he will have a great career ahead of him. but it was very sad when we heard about it and certainly he is also very sad. now, he also as you probably know, he says he is innocent. and i think you have to remember that. he said very strongly yesterday that he is innocent. so you will have to talk to him about that. but we absolutely wish him well. >> the president takes domestic violence very seriously. here is what we treated over the weekend. people's lives are being shattered by mere allegations. some are true, some are false. some are old and some are new. there is sno recovery someone

falsely accused. remember, the president takes domestic violence seriously. and we are to believe that because sara sanders believes that. >> the president and the sbiern administration take domestic violence seriously. the president also supports do you process. >> so if that is true, why didn't the president say that? why didn't he tweet that? why has he time and time again this time included supported the accused and not the accuser. today sanders was asked why we haven't heard the president say z exactly what she said. >> those are directly those words that he gave me. >> he had the opportunity to -- >> it is my job to speak on

behalf of the president. i spoke to the president, and he relayed that message directly to me and i am relaying it directly to you. i don't know how i can be any more clear. >> he wishes porter well and he believes that people should have due process. but he hasn't addressed the victims of domestic violence at all. >> that is actually not true. if you were paying attention to what i just read to you. >> we heard it. the president expressed support for porter and nothing about the women. praising the alleged predators, and nothing about the women except scorn for his accusers. now we all hear what he says and don't say and no amount of repetition from the podium. it insists the president

supports victims above all else. the white house is bopping and weaving on the time line. learning of the extent of the situation last tuesday. and within 24 hours porter's resignation had been accepted and announced. >> we reported and others have too that mcgahn overa period of months was told repeatedly by the ex-girl by the fbi and didn't do anything. can you explain why no action was taken by don mcgahn? >> those allegations that have been reported are not accurate. >> so she quickly batted that way in a general statement saying those reports are not accurate. but moments later, listen to what she said when she was asked to clarify. >> are you saying the white house counsel never learned until last tuesday, that there

was any allegations of any sort that was ever leveled against porter? >> again, i am not going into the specific details of how the process works but we learned of the extent of the situation -- >> who is we? >> the white house generally. again, i can tell you that the process for the background was ongoing. and the white house had not received any specific papers regarding the completion of that background check. >> okay. so she switches when asked about the white house counsel to speak generally about people in the white house saying we. and then she claims that the background check was still ongoing. she didn't receive any papers about the end of it. the only part of the story that the white house was clear on today is that the president takes domestic violence seriously and above all else supports victims.

that is not actually true. jim acosta was at the briefing today and he joins us now. it seems like we still don't have a time line from the white house. >> reporter: they are not giving straight answers at these briefings and we saw that again today. you heard sarah sanders that we warrant aware of the extent of what porter was accused of until s tuesday night. anderson, we have known for months, or we know they knew for months that this was lurking in rob porter's background that he was having background check problems in the security check problems and until the white house acknowledges that, they are going to have trouble answering this question. and the other thing that is lengthening this process is the

way the president is going back and forth on this. i talked to a couple of republican sources and this gives you a sense about how people are feeling about this in the republican party. saying the white house is not standing by the victims. a source on capitol hill hill asking why is the white house hedging on domestic abuse. this is doing lasting damage in the own party as well. >> that is right. and you can see this unfold during the briefing where the press secretary came out and read that statement from the president saying it was dictated by the president. and then of course every question was about this and i wanted to get to the bottom why is it you laid this out earlier, anderson, why was the president praising porter last friday and standing up for him over the

tweet over the weekend asking him about allegations and how it can damage people throughout the careers so i pressed her on that and here is what she had to say. >> is there just being on the wrong side of things? >> i don't think the president supporting do you process for any allegation is not tone deaf, it is allowing things to be investigated and a mere allegation not be the determining factor. he is not taking aside necessarily one way or another on any specific issue here, he is talking about mere allegations shouldn't be the determining factor for any individual. that there should be due process. anybody here if they were accused of -- hold on. i am not finished. hold on. what i am saying if anybody here if they were accused of something, would want the opportunity to go through due

process. >> reporter: and the other area in all of this would be the security clearances as we were reporting late last night, the white house has dozens of staffers who don't have full security clearances like jared kushner. when she was pressed on that, she said that is up to the fbi. we have been pointing out, the background check process it is under taken by the fbi and they bring that information to the white house, and incumbent on the white house to act on that. and sanders left that out. so not giving the complete story. >> we still don't have a clear time line. we are getting breaking news on that time line specifically as it relates to don mcgahn. what can you tell us about what

mcgahn was being told by the fbi and what he was saying in response. >> look, there is going to be a problem here that porter wasn't likely to make the cut for clearance. and mcgahn go out and finish the investigation and let's see what happens. and it is important to understand that the way this works is the fbi and the intelligence agencies they do their investigations and come up with the negatives. and whether mcgahn can delay this or wanted more information that is not entirely clear. >> it could have been he wanted more information or a stalling tactic on the part of mcgahn. >> exactly. and covering behind all of this is kushner and his clearance. if you go through everybody

else's clearance, and then you have to deal with the problematic ones. questions about kushner and his clearance and definitely porter. and what is happening with the other clearances. >> can they just allow people to continue to work on temporary security clearances that they give out? >> yes they can. this is ultimately the president's decision. if the president says i want this guy to see classified information, he can do it. he can declassify, he doesn't even have to. he can give them classified information and it is not a crime. >> mcgahn knew about this information with rob porter in at least in november, is that correct? >> that's what we have been told, yes. >> can you say how many sources you have on that? >> at least one. >> matthew rosenberg.

thank you. with me now is kristen powers. >> jason, the stories keep changing. in fact, it is all about the details. >> well, you are right, the messaging from the white house isn't good on this and there is an important point that we are missing that i haven't heard brought up so much and that is that domestic violence is a crime. if these allegations against mr. porter are accurate and i have no reason to believe they are not accurate. they are very credible. especially miss wiloughby. and then he is someone who

somehow entered the transition, as someone who continued crimes. and someone brought him into the white house. what i would want to know is who brought rob porter into the white house at the beginning. who brought him into the transition. and senator hatch should be figuring out who brought him in. this is problematic. and i don't think it was good that porter resigned. when you have such overwhelming evidence, someone like that should have been fired. >> the president has no problem speaking directly to the american people via twitter. why does he need to be issuing that statement that he did to sanders. >> he had an opportunity to say all of this when he spoke on

camera and talked about the situation. he had absolutely nothing to say about the women that he victimized and so it is a little hard for me to believe that this is a white house that takes domestic violence seriously as we keep hearing. we heard this from -- i am not going to argue about whether they knew about it a year or or five years ago. they said he was a man of integrity. this is what both general kelly said and what sanders said. i am paraphrasing, are lucky to have known him. this is after the news broke. so these are not people that are taking domestic violence

accusations seriously >> the other thing about the president's comments it wasn't as if the president was walking down the hall and somebody surprised him. they ushered the press corp into the hospital for t the office to make a statement about this. >> and in a lot of ways it cuts against the president trump that i saw on the campaign trail and i remember at one point, there is maybe a celebrity or somebody in hollywood, a domestic violence allegation and it came up in conference or in the news that day and the president reacted strongly to it. and i think he called him a sick sob or a sick puppy and the reaction was, he was ticked off. and that is, i wish we would seen that same emotion from the

president on friday. he hears this and he is horrified. and going back to a point that i was making earlier is the fact that this process really let the press down and again, going back to the fact that who brought porter into the white house, who brought him into the transition. who made him chief of staff in the u.s. senate. the fact that he was in the white house this long is problematic. we can't put the president of the united states in this position. that is not fair to him, not fair to the white house and to the country. >> the only tweet i recall from him as a citizen was about chris brown and rihanna and said something once an abuser, always an abuser. it would be crazy if she went back to chris brown. he had an opportunity to talk about bill o'reilly, and roger

ailes, and defended mike tyson. >> i am sure it is true, if somebody hit his wife and he knew about it, he would find that offensive. the problem is that he doesn't believe the women. that is what we saw with the roger ails situation. and he said i don't believe that he did that. he never did those things in front of me. why would these women complain. all of these people say when they don't understand domestic violence. they don't understand that a woman can say nice things about somebody and actually have been sexually harassed or been abused

by them. it seems that the assumption was that the women weren't telling the truth. >> kirsten powers, jason miller thank you very much. calling for the death penalty for the young man accused in the central park jogger case. those young men were exonerated after years in prison. i will speak with two of them next. touch is how we communicate with those we love, but when your psoriasis is bad, does it ever get in the way? embrace the chance of 100% clear skin with taltz. taltz is proven to help people with moderate to severe psoriasis achieve completely clear skin. with taltz, up to 90% of patients had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. in fact, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin.

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sanders -- fnow, the other part of sander's statement is more aligned in what the president tweeted this weekend. >> above all, the president supports victims of domestic. he certainly supports the victims of domestic violence and believes that everybody should be treated fairly and due process. supporting due process for any allegation is not tone deaf. there should be due process. but the president also supports due process. if anybody here accused of something would want the opportunity to go through due process. >> that is certainly true. but the president talking about due process it is a notable exception of the president's

newfound love of due process. or that hillary clinton should be jailed or police officers not being careful banging their heads in police cars. or running a full page ad. the president has never admitted that he was wrong and has never apologized. the irony was not lost on one of the exonerated jay santana. he rote you should have spoke like that back in 1989. you called for the death penalty. >> raymond, were you surprised the president calling for due process now. >> i wasn't surprised because of all of the stuff he has done

already leading up to this. it was all right, here we go, another day that he does something that is dumb and is ignorant. but it goes back to '89 and goes back to us saying we told you so. as far as, you know, the public, the general public. so it wasn't really surprising. it was one of those, here he goes again. and we told you, once again, this is who you are dealing with. this is the president. >> you said when it comes to president trump, there are two americas what do you mean by that? >> this is the great thing about what is happening now in the shape and the way the country is moving. clearly there is two separate americas. one america for blacks and people of color and one america for whites and people of influence. what he is doing for the good old boy's club. let's not rush to judge.

the guy says he is innocent of these particular charges. he strongly said it. we strongly said it back in 1989. we strongly said we did not do this crime. and the rush to judgment. the whole city, the jury pool was muddied and so looked at what was going on. they said these guys had to be guilty of something, look at them. >> kevin richardson this man is obsessed with rape and black and latino men. >> to point to the point of the good old boys' club. he has positioned himself as he is at the top. and everybody else is inferior to him. race does play a part. black and latino boys 14 and

15-years old. here you have women who he is speaking out against with the sexual assault stuff. and at the end of the day, this is his character. it all plays a part of that. and he chooses to stay on the top and he wants us to stay at the bottom. >> you say trump has never apologized. you all are exonerated both through confession and dna evidence. it wasn't as if it was through legal trickery. president trump was still saying all five of you were guilty of a crime. do you want an apology? >> we have given up hope that donald trump is going to be anything other than who donald trump is right now. kind of like it is this

weirdness going on in the white house. we all hope that we are going to wake up from this nightmare. and every single day we wake up and realize it is not a nightmare. we are living this thing out. it would be great if donald trump took out full page ads saying apology etic. we needed housing that would have been wonderful and excellent. but at the same time i realized i can't count on an apology from a person who doesn't know who it is to apology. >> raymond -- >> i'm through with that. >> raym raymond if an apology i possible. >> if he had it this way, we wouldn't be here right now.

our kids wouldn't have been born. he had a time where he could have said i was wrong. he stayed fast on his course. so we are i do not an apology. it is going to be a continued battle. >> and not only that, i want people to understand and go into the really investigatory process and find out what happens when you have a central park five. what happens to the families that central park five comes from. we were children. the whohopes and the dreams ande aspirations we had, we are just trying to realize that. >> you are talking about the ripple effects. >> exactly. when he sent the tweets that peoples' lives are being ruined just from an accusation, i took

personal offense to that. if donald trump came out and said, you know, what guys, oversight, it slipped my mind, i apologize. it has to be something so far more than that. something, i mean, that wouldn't be enough at this particular point. that wouldn't be enough. >> i appreciate you being on. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> more on the questions over security clearances at the white house. porter worked under an interim security clearance, same applies to 40 others right now. who the white house blames in background checks when we continue.

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as many as 40 white house administration officials still do not have security clearances including the president's son-in-law jared kushner. today sarah sanders said don't blame us. >> this is a process that doesn't operate in the white house. it is handled by our law enforcement and intelligence community. we support that process. it is the same process that has been used for decades and we are relying on that process at this point. it is up to that same law enforcement and intelligence agencies to determine if changes need to be made to their process. >> keeping them honest that is not true. evan perez with the facts. >> reporter: the way it works is

that the fbi does the background investigation on people who are applying for security clearances and that is what happened with the rob porter investigation. the white house chose to basically tell the fbi keep digging, keep investigating and they came back again and presented their findings to the white house. that is how the process works. the white house decides who gets a security clearance based on the investigation that the fbi does. they provide the raw information but it is up to the president to decide whoo he wants his team in the white house. the president is the ultimate classification authority and ultimate authority on who gets security clearance. if he wants to have rob porter get a security clearance, he can do that. what is astounding today is they were basically saying this is

not us. taking no ownership of what is the function of the white house, the white house counsel office, the white house security office. these are the people who would decide based on what the fbi found whether or not rob porter or anybody else gets a security clearance. the fbi addressed us, they issued a statement on thursday. saying the fbi does not grant deny or otherwise adjudicate security clearances for individuals on behalf of these agencies nor does it make any security clearance recommendations after the fbi completed background information, it provides information to the agency adjudicator authority who determines whether to grant or deny security clearance. this is a white house responsibility. >> amazing. thanks very much. jackie spear is a member of the house intelligence community and i spoke with her. >> for sarah sanders to suggest

this investigation is ongoing, that defies how these fbi investigations work. the fbi passed along what they discussed about porter and left in the white house hands. when you heard her claim it is still a ongoing process, does that make sense to you? >> no it doesn't make any sense to me. it is completed and handed over to the agency and the individual gets the security clearance or doesn't get the security clearance. they are tripping all over themselves because they had knowledge and chose not to act on it. and then because it came out in a news paper, they then had to scurry around and come up with some alibi. >> what do you think it says about this white house. a, that this happened initially, and kept this man on.

and also that they seem to be covering it up. >> it would suggest to me and i think most americans that this is a white house that doesn't believe the rules apply to them. they have another 30 or 40 persons in the white house right now who have not received security clearances and are operating on what is called a temporary security clearance so they have access that some of the most highly classified information, are targets potentially for any number of blackmail and other circumstances. >> i mean, jared kushner being one of those people. >> and i would say that has a lot to do with it. that is not why they are acting on the 30 or 40 other ones because he can't pass a security clearance and he has been operating on a temporary security clearance. i think they will just have everybody continue to have access and at some point

congress is going to have to step in and say you are violating the law. >> i want to ask you a tweet about what the president tweeted. people lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. some are true and some are false. some are old and some are new. there is no recovery for someone falsely -- what is your thought on that? >> i was furious by that tweet, anderson, and i think that virtually anyone men or women who sees the testimony and the photographs of the former wives and the former live-in girlfriend of mr. porter, there is a pattern of behavior here that is frightening and yet the president doesn't say one word, not one word about the lives that have been scarred by the actions of mr. porter.

and is totally focused on the abuser. one of his ex-wives got a restraining order against him. so there is plenty of evidence. >> regarding the democratic response memo, what is the status of it now, can you say? >> so the status of the memo is that the fbi and the department of justice now are going to meet with the minority members of the committee and particularly adam schiff is the ranking member. the president issued the memo and redacted nothing and yet there were sources and methods that were actually made public. >> so you are saying in the republican memo, there were sources and methods and the white house was paying

attention, they were paying attention to the fbi when it came to the democratic memo and didn't on the republican one. >> on the republican one, the fbi and the department of justice both said they had grave concerns. what is in fact classified information. the president before reading it said he was going to release it. so this has been a political process from the very beginning. the president tweets i am vindicated because he thought this was going to be his silver bullet. that this the investigation would come crumbling down because of this memo. like, there is no there there. >> i appreciate your teime. thank you. >> thank you. >> republicans reveal their

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as the senate gears up for more debate on immigration whether hundreds of thousands of so-called dreamers will be allowed to stay in the united states. president trump said it was up to the democrats to ensure the

passage of an agreement. >> i hope the democrats are not going to use it just as a campaign. we started about talking daca and i think we will produce. if the democrats want to make a deal, it is up for them. speaking for the republican party, we would love to do daca. we want border security. and the other you know about. if the democrats are serious and they want to do it. >> joining me tonight is jorge ramos. >> you hear the president, how much does a daca deal fall on the shoulders of the democrats? >> it is not going to be easy for them to accept everything that the president wants. they are proposing immigration revenge. they want a wall, they want more

border security, they want to end the so-called chain migration which is family reunification and the visa lottery. for the dreamers what they are asking them is impossible. republicans are saying, we want to legalize you. however, we want to deport your father, your mother, your siblings. that is an impossible choice for them. don't you think it is up to the democrats to make concessions here. the republicans do hold the cards >> the fact is that republicans with this negotiation, they want the change the essence of the united states. do they want to make america white again. from talking with the dreamers, is that they are willing to negotiate daca for a few miles of wall, maybe 300.

that is as much as they can go. but to tell them that from now on, everything is going to change, that chain migration has to stop. family reunification is no longer going to be the immigration principle that is going to guide us. i don't see it. the way i see it is daca for a few miles of wall but nothing else. >> for those in the republican who are talking about chain migration and see it as an issue and talk about merit based migration, what is in your opinion wrong with merit based migration. in terms of somebody's capability and background. >> family reunification has merits too. 40% of all of the founders of fortune 500 companies are

immigrants or sons of immigrants. so in other words, this is a system that works and when they are talking about chain migration, what they are saying is we want to have a white country again. we want to go back to 1965 when almost 80%, 90% of the people were non-hispanics. that is no longer this country. i think we agreed that since 1965, we want a diverse country. and the way they want to do this i think is reverse this incredible dem graphic trend. >> if the president does get a deal on daca, that would be a big win for them. >> probably. but it is a useless wall. mexico is not going to pay for that and it is not going to stop immigrants. >> do you think it matters whether or not mexico pays for it? >> i don't know.

he keeps on insisting on this. but i agree, it is not that important. look, it is almost 2,000 miles. only physical barriers in 700 miles. if president trump wants another 300, or 350. with that, we can get a dream act, most people would accept that. but to go beyond that is going to be impossible. what we are asking the dreamers, is to legalize them and then to deport the parents and democrats don't want to have 100 kids the following morning in their office telling them that they betrayed them. as much as they want a deal here, it would be a wall for daca but nothing else. >> to immigrants being protected by daca right now, how much faith do you think they should have that something is going to be resolved. >> probably nothing will be extended after march the 5th and

that is the risk. after 2020, i mean, unfortunately that might be plan b. but i don't think the dreamers will take anything that will affect their parents. when somebody is trying to hurt your parents, and your brothers and your sisters, you will always remember. so i don't see any way in which the dreamers can accept anything that is going to hurt their own family. i don't think they are going to take it. >> jorge ramos thank you very much. up next president trump has sympathy for a former aide. and how women who voted for them, see the scandal. yak searcs of travel and hotel sites so you can be confident you're getting the perfect hotel at the best price. soak it in. kayak. search one and done.

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back to our top story, white house press secretary sarah sanders insisting that president trump takes domestic violence very seriously.

the president has not said those words himself. instead he has tweeted suspicion over the "me too" movement and defended rob porter, the former aide accused of assaulting his two ex-wives. porter has denied the allegations against him. the question tonight, will the women who supported the president at the polls now walk away? here's what our randi kaye found out. >> if the president walked on water, the press would say he doesn't know how to swim. he's become a little bit, i guess, overcriticized. >> reporter: these republican women from miami all support president trump. and to say strongly would be an understatement. but what about this weekend's tweet about how people's lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation? it was just right. >> he said, some are guilty, and some are not. and not every accuser is telling the truth. i think that's important to know. >> reporter: in his tweet, the president didn't mention rob porter by name, but he also failed to mention porter's two

ex-wives, who claim they were physically abused by the now former white house aide. >> some might look at this tweet and say the president is dismissing rob porter's ex-wives. >> i think he's speaking generally. i think he's speaking from his own position as someone that has been accused, wrongfully accused. so i give him the benefit of the doubt. >> do you think the president's compassion may have been misguided. >> i don't think it means he doesn't have compassion for women. i think if you leave something out of a sentence, or you leave someone out, it doesn't mean you're not thinking about them. >> i think that we're victimizing the president, if you will, by the sense that every single word, every single tweet that he puts out is being scrutinized to the last molecule. i think what he voiced is valid. should we take the victims into consideration? absolutely. but should lives be condemned without due process? absolutely not. >> so despite this tweet, you all do believe that he is a great supporter of women -- >> sure. >> and stands up for women's issues? >> absolutely. >> as women, do you expect your president to be a voice for

women? >> he's not my moral leader. he's not my marital counsel. he is our president, and he's doing a great job as president. >> when you look at this picture, though, what do you all feel? >> it's a terrible situation. >> it's horrible. >> should he have said from the start, in a tweet or elsewhere, that there is no place for domestic violence in our culture, in our society? >> i think what he said was what he was feeling at the moment, and that was what came -- you know, and that was enough. >> reporter: if these women could get an audience with the president about publicly addressing matters of sexual abuse or assault, most say they'd tell him not to change a thing, though one had this piece of advice. >> maybe he should twee do violence is never tolerated. me too. maybe he should do that. >> are you joking, or are you serious? >> well, no. in part i'm joking. in part, i'm serious. we're never going to make 100% happy. unfortunately that's just the truth of the matter. >> reporter: anderson, only one

of the women we spoke with today actually thought the president perhaps should have shown a little more consideration towards rob porter's two ex-wives, but they all agree that the reason that the president talked only and tweeted only about rob porter is because he knows rob porter. porter worked for him. they said he doesn't know these two ex-wives, so why would he be tweeting about them? the women also said that it's not the president's place to play judge and jury in an investigation and in a situation like this. and, anderson, i also asked these women about the fact that the president has supported other men who have been accused of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, sexual assault such as roger ailes, bill o'reilly of fox news, and also roy moore of the alabama senate race. and they said to me the only reason they believe the president supported roy moore was for the good of the party, so he could hold on to that republican senate seat despite these disgusting allegations against him. they said that was only for the good of the party, anderson. >> randi kaye, thanks very much. up next, the conflicting white house stances on accused domestic abuser rob porter and the questions about a possible

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